


Camaraderie

by nebulaesailor



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Space Angst, i love eyeball so much please be okay, please bring back the rubies 2k17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 11:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10853103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulaesailor/pseuds/nebulaesailor
Summary: Eyeball fears dying alone in space until she crashes head first into a ship.





	Camaraderie

**Author's Note:**

> I love the Rubies so much especially Eyeball. I really hope she's okay. Honestly, I'm pretty annoyed with the Crystal Gems for just leaving them alone just to be shattered in space.

There was no concept of time where Eyeball was. Only darkness and the cold glow of distant stars. How long had she been floating alone, drifting off to who knows where? Will she ever see her crew again? Will she die alone here? 

No one will even know she was gone. She was so disposable, so replaceable. Why look for one ruby when there were millions of others like her. She would disappear into the inky abyss, silently and forgotten like she was never there. 

She could not cry for herself because what was there nothing to cry about. Her life had no meaning. She never did anything remarkable like Jasper, all she was one of thousands of interchangeable fusion partners, she never had a glory during the war that was hers alone. She was not a captain, even she was unremarkable in her caste. How can you grieve for a life that was insignificant and meaningless?

Perhaps the only thing that she could ever say made her life stand out in the slightest was that she knew what happened to Rose Quartz. Who else in the entire universe knew that? Even the diamonds didn’t know, yet she the disposable one in a million ruby knew. That could be her legacy, the Ruby Who Almost Shattered Rose Quartz. No one besides her would ever know. Heh, maybe her life had meaning after all. 

She curled into herself and closed her eyes, hoping that another asteroid would come and shatter her gem. She wanted to die. It would be better than being alive, floating aimlessly through space, completely alone until the universe itself dies. Maybe she would see her crew when she died. Maybe she would even see Pink Diamond. 

She smiled to herself as her body smashed into a pod, completely dissipating her form and leaving her gem vulnerable to the vacuum of space. Before it could float away into space and be lost forever, a pair of small hands swiftly caught it and disappeared into the safety of the pod. The gem sadly looked at her gem and cradled it to her chest. She rubbed the tears that were gathered in her eyes with the back of her hand, sitting back down in the control chair to wait for her friend to regain her form. 

“Come on, you can do it. Just come back to me. You were always the most stubborn, Vet.” She encouragingly said to the gem. Perhaps loneliness had driven her to such sentimentality. Rubies weren't supposed to be alone. 

Navy felt her face sting with tears, she hated to admit they were there. She was always too sensitive and soft for her liking. Despite acting like a manipulative coy brat in the faces of the Crystal Gems, she loved her crew more than anything in the universe. It’s not as if Homeworld cared about her in the slightest. It was only in her crew she found love and reason for living. 

With a bright glow, the gem in her hands flew out of her grasp and stayed suspended in the air before shifting to a familiar form and landing unceremoniously on the floor. Groggily, Eyeball squinted around at her surroundings, trying to process what had just happened to her. Before she was able to get ahold of what was going on, she found herself being pulled into the tight embrace of someone she thought she’d never see again.

“Fancy? Is that you? What’s going on?” Eyeball murmured into Navy’s shoulder. Still confused about what had transpired. 

“I accidently ran you over with the ship. I never thought I’d see any of you guys again. I was getting scared.” Navy admitted to her crewmate, tears freely moving down her cheeks.

“Where are the others? Are they okay? What happened with the Crystal Gems? I’m just really at a lost here.” Eyeball’s mind racing from one point to another with little bridging between them, leaving her even more confused.

“I...don’t know. You were the only one I could find....I don’t know if they're okay...” She said quietly, holding on to Eyeball tighter as if she was afraid to let her go. 

Eyeball was just too tired to care. So starved for gem contact, she found herself melting into Navy’s embrace. She didn’t even know she was crying until she moved to rub her gem. They stayed like that for what felt like hours. Desperately holding each other, afraid if they let go a little that the other would disappear and they’d be alone again. 

“I thought I was going to die. I thought I’d never see you again.” Eyeball said, breaking the silence. Navy’s head rested on her shoulder, heavy and still.

“Me too.” It was so faint almost if it was a whisper. 

“What do we do now? Do we contact Homeworld or…?” Eyeball’s voice trailed off. Do they tell Homeworld about the possibly world changing information she had or look for her friends? Who knows if they’ll ever get the chance to look for them again. Still, the gravity of the decision weighed on her.

“You know what.” 

That was all that had to be said. They were nothing without each other. In a system that viewed them as interchangeable cogs to be thrown at danger to be shattered and replaced, they must look after each other or lest be reduced to meaningless nothing. If that meant putting priority on finding her teammates over her Diamond, then so be it.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Navy isn't as much of a bitch as she seems like in Room for Ruby. I think she legitimately cares about her fellow Rubies and wanted to get back at the people who hurt them in the first place. I think she stole that ship for them as much as herself. She has belly gem for a reason.


End file.
